Damon dropped to his knees first, then lay on his side on the tarpaulin-covered floor. Malory was pacing in front of him, obviously annoyed, though at whom wasn’t clear. By the time Damon was able to sit, he decided the floor might be the best place to stay.
“When I first found the pirate, he was still building his base. When I returned, it was mostly finished and there were a lot more men. When I was let out of his dungeon three weeks later, I saw that the ranks had grown, and his men were packing and tearing down structures because Lacross was moving again. There’s a tavern keeper in St. Kitts who supplies them with rum. I’m supposed to get their new location from him when I return this time.”
Damon tensed when the pacing stopped and James stood in front of him. “My daughter seems to think I should know you. From where?”
“Considering you knocked me out the last time we met four years ago, I’m surprised you don’t remember.”
“I’m never one to turn down a good fight,” James said drily. “Refresh my memory about the one you seem to think we had?”
“You really don’t remember?”
“Should I?”
“I suppose not. It was late at night, the street was dark and we spoke—I spoke, only briefly. I asked you where my mother was. You answered with your fist.”
“That does ring a bell, actually, and you were quite belligerent in the asking, weren’t you? Can you be more specific so we can clear up why you think I know where this woman is?”
Unable to contain the anger he’d harbored for years, he shot to his feet and spat out, “You seduced her into leaving her family!”
“I beg to differ,” James replied blandly. “I’ve seduced hundreds of women, including unhappily married ones in my more rakehell years, but the one thing I’ve never done is try to lure a wife away from her husband. You appear to have mistaken me for someone else.”
“Your memory might be faulty, but mine isn’t. I know exactly who you are, Captain Hawke.”
Malory’s demeanor changed abruptly. Damon braced himself again. It was no wonder men feared this man when he could become so deadly menacing in the blink of an eye.
The neutral tone was gone when James said, “Aside from my family, barely a handful of people know that name. How do you?”
“You were my neighbor in Jamaica.”
Again, Malory’s demeanor changed. “Only the Ross family were close enough for me to call neighbors, from the plantation that butted up against mine. So you’re the window breaker all grown up—and still daring?”
“And you’re the man who stole my mother!”
“Give it up, lad. I did nothing of the sort. She was leaving Cyril of her own accord. Your mother told me of his drinking and gambling—and that she’d never been happy there. But there was a desperation, too, to leave immediately. She didn’t say what the urgency was and I didn’t know her well enough to pry. But in any case, she was aware that I had a ship anchored nearby and she asked me for passage to England.”
“Is that where you took her?”
“No, I had other business to attend—”
“Yet you still took her away!”
“Yes, I did, but not far a’tall, just around to the other side of the island, where she could find a passenger vessel in Port Antonio to take her and you to England. It was far enough away from your home that your father wouldn’t look for her there. And I promised I’d help her retrieve you when I returned, but unfortunately, I never made it back that way.”
Damon found it hard to let go of the anger he had harbored for this man for so long, thinking what he did. In fact, Damon couldn’t. He was supposed to just believe an ex-pirate?
“You don’t look convinced, Captain. I don’t actually care other than to say, no one calls me a liar without seriously regretting it. So before it comes to that, perhaps I can be a little more clear. I have no shame in admitting that I am the black sheep of my family for good reason. I was wild and reckless and had been since I came of age, so I wasn’t particular in those days about the women I bedded, including wives who weren’t happy in their marriages. However, I drew the line at stirring up trouble in my own backyard, as it were. And your mother tugged at something in me that wasn’t prurient, might even have been compassion, though I was quite sure I was no longer capable of that feeling back then. She was gracious, beautiful, but so very melancholy. And yet she was still kind to my son, bringing him hot meals and treats when he was there alone with just the servants. Now you’ve twice asked me where she is and I’ve told you where I last saw her, but I haven’t a clue where she ended up. She was crying that day when you bolted instead of going with her. If she left the island, it would have been to get help to fetch you out of there, which I assume didn’t happen?”
“No, my father and I never saw her again.”
“Did you look for her in England? That was where Sarah wanted to go.”
“Of course I did, with no luck.”
“Then you might want to check the harbor records in Port Antonio where I left her. That’s if they even keep them this long—it was nineteen years ago, wasn’t it?” At Damon’s nod, James added, “Perhaps she never made it to England. For all I know, she might still be in Port Antonio, or perhaps she went to America.”
“That suggests I’ll be alive to check those records.”
“I regret that I wasn’t able to keep my promise to your mother. A boon for you will remove that regret.”
Chapter Forty-Three
IF YOU DON’T STOP laughing, Tony—”
“Yes, yes, you’ll toss me over the side.” Anthony tried to whistle instead, but it wouldn’t get past his curled lips.
Jacqueline was avidly listening to her father and uncle’s conversation as she finished off a breakfast pastry and tapped her foot impatiently under the dining table. She was torn between wanting to check on Damon’s condition after his second “talk” with her father, and not wanting to miss a single word her father said about him. She had arrived at her father’s cabin directly behind Tony, so she didn’t think she’d missed anything pertinent, even though Jeremy had already been there.
At least now they knew why Damon had gotten involved with Lacross and that he wasn’t a criminal. But why the deuce couldn’t he have told her and Jeremy? Perhaps because he didn’t want them to know that he hated their father, believing what he did? If he’d told them any of that, Jeremy wouldn’t have agreed to an alliance. He would have helped to get rid of the pirates for her sake, but he wouldn’t have agreed to a truce with Damon afterward.
Anthony was still smiling when he added, “But you have to admit, old boy, that your helping a damsel in distress just isn’t—you. You bloody well wouldn’t do it.”
“She cried.”